M2M deal keeps tabs on cargo

LONDON – Telecommunications service provider Deutsche Telekom has signed a multimillion dollar cargo-monitoring service deal based on machine-to-machine (M2M) communication over the cellular network.

Deutsche Telekom AG (Bonn, Germany) has made M2M and the internet of things (IoT) a key part of its strategy and is pursuing numerous initiatives including the nurturing of startups in this area.

Under the terms of the deal Arviem AG (Baar, Switzerland), a provider of cargo-monitoring services, will offer a real-time monitoring service for freight consignments based on Deutsche Telekom supplied hardware and SIM cards allowing freight to be monitored over the cellular phone network. Arviem will supply the software that evaluates the collected data and presents back to customers. In the next step Deutsche Telekom will develop a complete, single-source service, including the software, that could be offered into different market segments.

The cargo monitor business model provides for fixed price per consignment and allows customers to fit individual containers or individual consignments within containers with the monitoring/reporting hardware. The hardware includes sensors that record ambient conditions such as temperature, humidity or vibrations and localizes the the container's position to within 30 meters by GPS. The M2M solution relays the data required via the mobile network and the software then processes the information and sends it to the customer by e-mail or posts it on a website dashboard.

Click on image to enlarge.

Web interface for cargo monitoring service from Arviem.

More than 16 million containers a day are under way around the world, and an average of 30 percent of freight consignments arrives either damaged or late, Deutsche Telekom said.